Sunderland's best burger and brownie named as part of food festival

People on the festival’s Facebook page were asked to cast their votes for where to get the best sweet and savoury treats in the city – and the results are in.

Sunderland Food and Drink Fest invited restaurants, bars and cafés to put their best plates forward to be in with the chance of being crowned the city’s favourite brownie and burger spots.

Organisers Sunderland BID have now revealed that this year’s Battle of the Burger winner is LayWawa’s Café, at Stockton Terrace, with their Special LayWawa’s Burger – loaded with bacon, cheese, onion rings and the café’s special burger relish.

And The Little Cakery by the Sea, at STACK Seaburn, came out on top in the Brownie Challenge, with their Ferrero Rocher Brownie winning over those with a sweet tooth.

The pair beat tough competition, with entries from Boojie Burger, Longhorns BBQ Smokehouse, The Sweet Petite, Blackberries Patisserie and Fausto Coffee also getting special mentions.

Sarah Howell, owner, director and chef at LayWawa’s Café, is thrilled to have won the competition.

"Our team are honoured to have been part of the Sunderland Food and Drink Fest,” she said.

“We pride ourselves on quality and delivering a taste experience to remember.

“We are a small, new business just finding our feet in the world and can't thank everyone enough for the support and love we have been shown by the wonderful people of Sunderland."

Jess Everest and Kaye Riley opened The Little Cakery by the Sea following the success of The Corner Deli and Cakery, at South Shields.

“We pride ourselves on our brownies and it’s a recipe we have perfected over the years,” said Jess.

“We think they are hard to beat and it’s lovely the public think that too. Thank you to everyone that voted for us, being a small business – it means so much.”

Sharon Appleby, Chief Executive at Sunderland BID, was delighted to see so many businesses get involved.

“The great thing about the Sunderland Food and Drink Fest is that it reminds us all how lucky we are to have such a vibrant hospitality scene in the city,” she said.

“We had some incredible entries for both Battle of the Burger and the Brownie Challenge which made it a very close competition and our two winners should be very proud.

“It’s not difficult to see why the Special LayWawa’s Burger and the Ferrero Roche Brownie were so popular and we hope people will pay them a visit to try it out for themselves.”

Along with celebrating local businesses, the Sunderland Food and Drink Fest also hosted a variety of virtual cookalongs and demos from celebrity chefs including Jean-Christophe Novelli, Rustie Lee and The Great British Bake Off finalist Alice Fevronia.

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